How many times do we cry?

Wyng : Do you know that we cry 250 trillion times a year? Because our tear glands at the bottom of our eyes release a bit of water droplets to keep our eyes moist, that's why we cry so many times.

Mom : What's moist?

Wyng : It's like moisture. I mean, to keep your eyes from being very dry.

Mom : Where do you read this from?

Wyng : From my book, 'More,Tell Me More'. It's not like those encyclopedia.  All those things about why? why? why? Like, why do people...

Mom : I see.

Lesson learnt : 250 trillion times? Did I hear it wrong? I can't even comprehend this figure. Could it be that when the eyes are moist, it's also considered 'crying'? Yet to know the truth of this new found fact from Wyng.

What is my kid reading?

"Mom, see, his ambition is to be an accountant like you"

"This is how it works"

He reads manuals, he reads circulars, he reads brochures, flyers apart from his usual story books. In short, he reads anything with words, lots of them. Somehow, he is intrigued by how things happen and why things happen.

Whilst waiting for his brother during one of the Kumon classes, (well, he finished earlier sometimes) he grabbed hold of a Kumon newsletter.  What attracted him was the page with many tiny words listing down names of Kumon achievers.  He browsed through the photos of achievers and actually read (out to me) what the students felt about their achievements after taking Kumon. Some of them wrote about their ambitions.

Something I couldn't stand about him is he reads 'dry' and boring stuff such as manuals.  Here, in this picture, he was reading an operating manual of a vacuum cleaner. At this point of blogging this, I asked him the name of the vacuum cleaner. He went to his desk and showed me the manual from Dyson. He's still keeping the manual!

Don't ask me if this is a positive sign that this guy seems to love reading technical stuff.  Only time will tell.

He is a real reader

On an outstation trip as we were travelling in our car heading towards KL, Wyng kept reading the small signs located along the highway.  These are signs which indicate the distance to KL.  Guess what, he was patient and persistent enough to read for a good 5 to 6 minutes.

Twenty six, twenty five point five, twenty five, twenty four point five, twenty four, twenty three point five, and so forth. It was so mundane that I have to stop him from rattling some boring numbers on and on .  No one was paying attention to him except Mom and after the long journey we just needed some quietness for a while. But, Wyng never seemed to tire.

He reads everywhere

This post appeared on 22 December 2008 in my previous blog.  Here is a reposting.

Wyng was 5 plus then

At any bookshop we frequent, on the bed, in the car, at the music centre and anywhere where he can lay his hands on books. He got the hang of reading sometime middle of this year. Since then, reading is no longer a struggle.

He seems to be hooked on it!

Reading without Mom's guidance at 5 years

Wyng was 5 years and 3 months old then. We were in a car when he picked up his 'No Monsters Allowed' book and read it for the first time without Mom's prior guidance.  He has never read this book previously.  From this book, he learned a new word 'excellent'.  I still remember I tested him for a second time and he actually remembered it.

As I was driving, I was pleasantly surprised that he could read words such as 'thought', 'cheered', ' imagine', 'butter', 'scrambled', 'ladder', 'blushed', 'slumped', 'wondered', 'everybody', 'different', 'moment' and 'voice'.